Study on the effect of low temperature pasteurization and storage temperature on the microbial dynamics in fresh water prawn

Abstract

Food security is a complex issue, where fish and fishery products are generally regarded as high risk commodity in respect of pathogen contents, natural toxins and other possible contaminants and adulterants. They are usually sold as a live product and can be stored for several weeks before consumption. Temperature abuse during prawn postharvesting may allow multiplication of natural spoilage flora as well as pathogens, which imparts a potential threat to consumers and / or compromising product quality. So, Present study focused on the effect of low temperature pasteurization (Roasting, boiling at 60°c for 5 min, 10min, 15min) and storage temperature (25°C,4°C,0°C) on the microbial load of raw prawn. The average count of total bacterial count (TBC), E. coli, Vibrio sp., Salmonella sp., total coliforms, fecal coliforms in raw shell stock prawn were higher than raw peeled prawn after 15 min boiling and roasting. It also evident that roasting had a more destructive on microbes than boiling when applied on both raw peeled samples and shell stock prawn. The effect of temperatures on the microbial status were found significantly higher in shell stock prawn than peeled prawn at the stored temperature and number of the spoilage bacteria were decreased with storage time and also with the temperature for both shell stock prawn and peeled prawn.